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GV Chyong Tin, Chairman of Permanent Committee of National Assemblies speaking to officials in the Hall of the House of Congress (4 shots)
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GV Government leaders file past coffin
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GV EXTERIOR Coffin carried out to Congress House and put on to gun carriage as troops and mourners watch (4 shots)
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GV Gun carriage with coffin moves through street followed by marching troops and mourners and preceded by army jeeps carrying pictures of dead President (5 shots)
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Background: Vietnamese President Ton Duc Thang was buried in Hanoi on Friday (4 April) after a period of lying in state at the House of Congress. President Thang died on March 31 at the age of 91. His successor has not been named officially but Nguyen Huu Thon, who held the post of Vice President on the death of Mr. Thang has been named as acting President.

SYNOPSIS: On Thursday (3 April) a ceremony of mourning for the late President was held in the Hall of the House of Congress in Hanoi. The Chairman of the Permanent Committee of the National Assembly, Chyong Tin Addressed the assembled Congress members and officials and delivered a memorial eulogy. The General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Le Zuan attended the ceremony, alongside Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Van Dong, members of the politburo, government ministers and army officers. A Soviet delegation was headed by deputy Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Russian Federation, Mr. Yasnov. Delegations from Kampuchea and Laos also were present.

On Friday (4 April) the late President's flag-draped coffin was put on a motor-drawn Howitzer and carried though the streets to Mai Dich cemetery. Vietnamese lined the route to watch the cortege pass by and pay tribute to their former leader.

President Thang was a southerner, born in the Mekong Delta. At the age of twenty-four he took up exile in France for his part in early, anti-colonial movements.Thang served in the French Navy during World War One then spent 16 years in the notorious penal colony of Con Son for his part in a mutiny in the Black Sea. Thang held a number of leading position sin the revolutionary movement in Vietnam during the country's war of independence and was appointed Vice President on the death of Ho Chi Minh. Later he succeeded to the largely ceremonial office of President of a united Vietnam.